Cubebs and Medicine

Mumbo-jumbo apart, cubebs were valued by the medical profession and were used by Arab physicians as early as the ninth century and in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. However, they gradually disappeared from use, though there was a comeback in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Being strongly antiseptic, cubebs were an important treatment for gonorrhoea in pre-antibiotic days. They were considered less disagreeable than other remedies on offer, especially during prolonged treatment.

Cubebs were also valued as a remedy for flatulence and dyspepsia, and for catarrh and other respiratory afflictions. Curiously, until the 1940s there was even a cubeb cigarette for treating asthma and hay-fever – a remedy seemingly at odds with the affliction. Edgar Rice Burroughs, famous creator of Tarzan, apparently liked to smoke these as a student, although obviously not for the medicinal properties.